in Israel, the long struggle of hostage families – L’Express

“Seeing my nephew Almog celebrate his third birthday without his parents was one of the saddest moments of my life.” Invited to speak at an economic conference in London, Michael Levy, sales manager at TikTok, would have preferred to speak on his usual subjects. But this September morning, a yellow ribbon, a symbol of support for the Hamas hostages, pinned to the lapel of his jacket, came to evoke the tragic fate of his brother Or and his wife, Eynav. On October 7, 2023, the young couple, from Givatayim (a suburb of Tel Aviv), had their toddler looked after to attend the Nova music festival, near Réïm, a kibbutz on the edge of the Gaza Strip. Arriving on the scene at dawn, they never returned home. Hamas terrorists first killed Eynav, 32, and 17 other festival-goers in a missile shelter in a field, where only a few, hiding under a pile of corpses, survived. Then they loaded Or, 33, into the back of a van, with two companions in misfortune.

At the end of June, the entire country was able to discover the frightening video of their road to hell: images that pass from the injured hostages to the captors armed with cheering Kalashnikovs, while the pick-up speeds down a narrow road. The families of the three kidnapped had viewed them for the first time at the beginning of the year. In desperation, they decided to make them public, in order to push the draft agreement on hostages proposed in the spring by President Joe Biden, the adoption of which remains most uncertain to this day.

Sunday, September 1, their anxiety went up a notch. That day, the IDF – the Israeli army – revealed that it had recovered the remains of six captives in a tunnel, 20 meters deep. Among the young Israelis brutally executed by Hamas, after eleven months of captivity, was Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, kidnapped in the same pickup as Or Levy. “The country is preparing to commemorate the disaster, but the simple fact of arriving at this date is a failure. Every day, I wake up on October 7,” says his brother Michael, father of three little girls, who no longer counts the many of his trips abroad, to meet the Pope or the Qatari ambassador in Washington. His obsession: to put pressure so that the subject of the 101 hostages still in the clutches of Hamas – around sixty of whom are estimated to be alive – does not fall into oblivion.

“You don’t deserve this yellow ribbon”

For the family of Romi Gonen, 24, also kidnapped during the Nova rave, time stopped at 10:58 a.m. this disastrous Saturday. Curled up at the foot of a car, while her best friend had just been murdered before her eyes, this ex-scout leader was able to speak at length with her mother, before communication was cut off. “They shot me. Mom, just so you know, I’m going to die if no one comes,” begged the young woman, who had been shot in the arm. Her last proof of life dates back to the end of November: a family released during the brief truce agreement between Israel and Hamas reported seeing her. His wound had not been treated. Since then, the fight of his loved ones has never weakened, but the torment continues.

At the end of August, during a rally organized in the border area with Gaza, Yarden Gonen’s cries came from a loudspeaker. “Romi! Romi! Romi! I want you to know that whatever happens we won’t stop. We do everything for you”, screamed the hostage’s big sister, before imploring in Arabic those responsible for the Hamas to “stop harming women”. For her part, Meirav Leshem Gonen, Romi’s mother, took up her pilgrim’s staff before the summer in Geneva to denounce the seriousness – and the trivialization – of sexual violence suffered in captivity during a session of the Human Rights Council. the man of the United Nations. And on Sunday, September 1 in Tel Aviv, after the IDF’s deadly announcement, she addressed nearly 500,000 angry people, the largest demonstration that the country has seen since October 7. “I demand that you, members of the cabinet, remove the yellow ribbon from the lapels of your jackets. You do not deserve it,” she asserted on a stage displaying six coffins covered with an Israeli flag.

At the end of the day, the families of the hostages decided for the first time to make their voices heard on Begin Street, a hotbed of protest against the government, and not on the esplanade near the Tel-Art Museum. Aviv. This is in fact where their large weekly rally is now held, opposite the main entrance to the Ministry of Defense, where the crowd chants very virulent slogans against the Prime Minister, nicknamed “Mr. Abandon”. Saturday, September 22, while the IDF has just launched his military campaign against Lebanese Hezbollah, film actor and master of ceremonies Lior Ashkenazi relays their concerns: “Netanyahu does not have the mandate to abandon the hostages to pursue a war in the North. Sinouar [NDLR : le chef du Hamas] fulfills his dream of a multi-front war against Israel.”

This very militant position does not necessarily attract support. “Many of us do not want to mix politics with our cause,” comments Michael Levy, the captive’s brother. “Some families accuse the government of torpedoing the negotiations, others argue that only military pressure will bring back the hostages. But the most important thing is to uphold the contract that binds the State to its citizens: that of ensuring their security and bring everyone home.”

“My son was killed in a tunnel you built”

For all Israelis, the hostage question remains a gaping wound that constantly revives the trauma of the October 7 pogrom. And shakes all convictions. Among the families of the six hostages executed by Hamas in the depths of Rafah, only one, that of Ori Danino, kidnapped at the Nova festival, agreed to receive a visit of condolence from Benjamin Netanyahu during the traditional week of mourning. Ori’s father, Elhanan Danino, a rabbi affiliated with the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, a member of his right-wing coalition, did not hesitate to confront him. “My son was killed in a tunnel you built. For fifteen years you sat quietly, doing nothing. You armed them with swords, tunnels and dollars. You did nothing to prevent what resulted,” he asserted, before imploring the Prime Minister to stop fueling divisions in the country.

Bringing together all Israelis is also the concern of Jonathan Shamriz, survivor of the massacre in Kfar Aza, a border village in the Gaza Strip, whose brother Alon, kidnapped by Hamas, was shot dead by mistake by the forces of IDF last December. “I will not let any politician decide how my friends, my kibbutz community and fallen soldiers will be commemorated,” he said as the October 7 anniversary approached. To mark this sad day, he launched the idea of ​​a civic ceremony organized in Hayarkon Park, the green lung of Tel Aviv, in support of the families and communities struck by the tragedy. The event will be broadcast around the world. The official national ceremony, entrusted to the very controversial Likud Minister Miri Regev, must be pre-recorded in Ofakim, one of the southern cities infiltrated by terrorists. Without an audience and without renowned artists, all of whom declined the invitation.